The End Is My Beginning
by Nike
Summary: What good is being a god if you can't stop the end of the universe? Transcendence AU


**Notes:** So, this is a thing. Honestly, there's so many other things I should be working on, but while trying to pull myself out of my video game addiction, I ended up tripping and falling right into the Gravity Falls fandom and its various AUs. I've gotten so much written in this fandom instead of other things it's not even funny.

I don't claim any ownership of Gravity Falls or of the Transcendence AU.

* * *

 **The End Is My Beginning**

What good was being a god if you couldn't stop the end of the universe, the star child once known as Alcor the Dreambender, once known as Dipper Pines wondered. And the universe was ending, not unlike a soap bubble that had expanded too far and was threatening to collapse under the weight of its own entropy.

The star child could see the way it was tipping and threatening to collapse, not unlike the block tower game he'd once played with Mizar where one took away from the base to make it taller but threatened its stability in the process. He'd tried stopping it from tumbling, tried shoring up the missing supports and keep it going even as it threatened to sputter and die. He'd kept it up long enough for the last of the souls to stop reincarnating, leaving him alone in a dead and dying universe. There was nothing living any longer, not even bacteria, and the stars were blinking out one by one even as he watched.

There was no point anymore he realized. Hadn't been for at least an eon. All he was doing was the cosmic equivalent of keeping a decaying body on life support long after its soul had gone and reincarnated. The only reason he was keeping it limping along was because he was afraid. One would think a being such as he would be long past the point of petty emotions like fear, but he was, had been, and a part of him always would be human. And he was afraid because he was part of the universe and if it ended, surely so would he.

But he was tired and could tell when an effort was futile. Even the multiverse had collapsed as all the other universes died natural deaths and the new ones spun off as this one slowly came to a halt died as soon as they came into existence. So, finally, he took the strings he'd been grasping, pulling, tugging, in an attempt to keep the universe together and running, gathered them up and let them go.

* * *

The universe ended, softly, quietly, like a sigh. And then it was gone.

* * *

There was nothing. And there was everything. Even as he was, even after all he'd gone through, the star child could barely comprehend what he was seeing. For the first time in eons, he couldn't truly wrap his mind around what was in front, around, surrounding him.

It was Nothing. And it was Everything. And as he stared, he realized it was staring back. And smiling.

The star child had a bare instant of unease before the Love hit him, washed over him like a wave and wrapped around him like a warm blanket on a cold day. It was overwhelming and he would have cried at the sensation if he had still been capable of crying. He had never felt so loved or wanted before. Not even Mizar had managed to love him so unconditionally. He didn't deserve it, knew without a doubt that he didn't, but he was loved so much anyway and nothing he could say or do would ever take it away.

Then the being that was Nothing Yet Everything reached out and gently pulled him into a hug.

It had been eons since he'd last interacted with anything, longer still since he'd last been touched. The sob that had been forming in his throat from the moment he felt the Love tore free and he found he could cry as he started bawling like a lost child returned to his family. Some part of him thought that it was an extremely accurate metaphor.

He eventually stopped crying and was content to be held. Wanted nothing more than to be cradled by this being for all eternity. And he was. But time had no meaning here, so while he spent an eternity cradled in that loving embrace, he was also, at the exact same time, stepping back so he could look at the being and ask, "Who?" despite knowing, deep down, exactly who.

A voice that was the cosmic equivalent of plasma literally ripping the air to shreds, with the inevitability of a glacier falling into the sea, and as silent as the death of a star answered. It was a voice felt with every single molecule, every atom and quark and smaller still, rather than being heard by something as mundane as ears. It was beautiful.

 _I Am All That Is, All That Was, And All That Will Ever Be._

"You're the reason the holy symbols work."

 _Yes._

"Why?" the star child asked, and there were so many questions packed into that one word. Why was he only seeing the being now? Why had they allowed what had happened to happen? Why had the symbols hurt _so much_?

 _You Already Know._

He did. He knew he'd always seen the being and just hadn't realized it. He hadn't been able to see the forest for the trees. Hadn't been able to comprehend a being that had encompassed and was not only the universe, but the multiverse even after his ascendancy until now that he was outside of it.

That the reason it had happened was because, somewhere, it had to happen. The possibility had to exist somewhere or none of the other possibilities would've existed at all and the universe, the multiverse, didn't work like that.

And that the symbols had hurt because of the separation they represented. To become a demon, to become a god, one had to separate themselves from the world and doing such a thing hurt. It hurt being separated from the multiverse and its deep abiding love for him and the symbols had been a soul-deep reminder that had burned because he hadn't wanted to be separated, not truly.

Most importantly, he knew what he had to do next. And it scared him to the core. Made him want to scream and rail and rage.

 _Do You Trust Me?_

The anger froze and died. How could he say no? Because he did trust them, with all of his soul.

"Yes."

And the fear was wiped away as if it had never been. And the star child that had once been Alcor, once been Dipper Pines, took a deep breath before reaching inside of himself and ripping out his soul.

There was an explosion as all of the power he'd gained and gathered, all that he had claimed but had in the end belonged to the Nothing Yet Everything, released itself and tore through. The soul was unafraid as it watched it happen where it was cradled by the Nothing Yet Everything. It had seen the universe end. Now it saw the universe start again and then the multiverse as what was a hydrogen atom _here_ was a helium atom _there_. Everything was beginning again and now it was time to wait for his turn to begin again.

* * *

There was water up to his waist but at the same time he was perfectly dry. And he wasn't really a he, only thought of himself as such because he'd spent so long as Dipper Pines that he still thought of himself in that way even as lifetimes before that one reasserted themselves.

He was Dipper Pines and all that he had been before that life and he was standing waist deep in perfectly dry water and he needed to head for shore where he could see other flickering souls waiting. There were so many souls waiting and Dipper knew they were waiting for him. By the time the water was knee deep, he recognized the one closest to him. The soul in front of him shifted in a way that should've made his eyes hurt but didn't and he couldn't help but stare as he recognized Belle, Luis, Bentley, Marceta, Mira, _Mizar_. They didn't wait, couldn't, and met him when he was ankle-deep in the water and sent them both falling into the water with the force of their hug. By that time, it was Mabel hugging him and laughing and saying, "About time you made it, you _dork_."

It was Mabel hugging him as they both laughed with joy, although bits and pieces of all the others they had been showed through in the color of their skin and the shape of their eyes as they pulled back out of the hug and took him by the hand as they led him to the others. He recognized all of his family, including all of his parents and all of his niblings and great-niblings and various brothers and sisters-in-law and his friends. Looking at Cassie made his own form start changing like the others as past people he - no, _they_ \- had been before Alcor, before _Dipper_ reasserted themselves in recognition of teacher/pupil/ _friend_.

His changes were slower, more halting than the others, a result of being stuck in essentially one form for far too long. He wasn't alone in that. The other had oddly sharp edges, although they'd been dulled and softened by Ian/Toby/Chrysanthemum and everyone else they had been ever since they'd taken Dipper Pines' place in the reincarnation cycle. They looked content in a way they had never seen before. It made them happy to see.

It was amazing, being surrounded by all the souls they had ever and still very much loved even as the love of the multiverse still surrounded and suffused them. They could have spent an eternity there. Maybe they did, but they eventually asked, "What happens next?"

"Life," Mizar replied, brilliant smile always the same despite the innumerable lives the soul had lived. "I'm _so_ going to make sure we end up as twins again."

"Good luck, Shooting Star," the being once known as Bill stated in a way that managed to be both sincere and sarcastic. "You're going to need it."

And apparently the multiverse had a sense of humor, because they ended up as triplets.

* * *

 **Notes:** This is going to sound really weird, but apparently special abilities run in my mom's side of the family. It mostly manifests as a very close connection to God, but it also allows a certain awareness of... odd things. That said, I _know_ God exists. It was admittedly blind faith until I was a teenager but once you've literally been hugged by your deity, the idea of denying they exist is both stupid and futile.

The love is real. I'm also pretty certain I did a horrible job at trying to describe it. How do I describe something that not only made me cry with joy at experiencing but cry because I knew I couldn't just stay that way forever because I still needed to eat and sleep and breathe and _live_. (And before you ask, there was no near-death experience involved. I was sitting on the floor surrounded by people who would've noticed if I'd suddenly gone into, I dunno, cardiac arrest or something, even though I hadn't been the center of their attention at the time. Several did notice my reaction to what happened, though, and asked to make sure I was alright since I'd obviously been crying.)

Anyway, God is very real and very much alive. As for whose religion is correct... well, they all are and they're all not at the same time, at least as far as I can tell, and for exactly the same reason why no one can properly describe an atom or the multiverse. We just can't wrap our heads around God and tend to both get things very right and get things very wrong as we try to explain.

The important part is God is Love and thus Love is God. And if you've ever known real, true Love and wanted to share it, then you know God and, sooner or later, you'll find your way.


End file.
